Assignment 1: Explore Scholarly Writing Through Academic Journal Articles

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Early Childhood Education Journal (2021) 49:669–679 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-020-01107-8

“Everyone Can Be a Leader”: Early Childhood Education Leadership in a Center Serving Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Children and Families

Clarisse Halpern1  · Tunde Szecsi2 · Veronika Mak3

Published online: 18 August 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020

Abstract The aim of this study was to investigate the conceptualizations and early childhood education (ECE) leadership practices among teachers and administrators. A case study was conducted at a community ECE center that mainly serves Hispanic and Haitian immigrant children and families in Southwest Florida. Three administrators and four ECE teachers were interviewed about their views and experiences with ECE leadership. After aggregating the data into clusters, five themes emerged: (1) vision-driven leadership, (2) inclusive leadership (3) practice-focused leadership, (4) freedom and ownership vs. close supervision, and (5) advocacy for ECE. The findings indicated that the participants held a shared vision of collaborative and inclusive ECE leadership, which was expanded to include culturally and linguistically diverse children and families. Also, the teachers highlighted a pedagogical leadership style that directly impacted their everyday classroom practices to facilitate children’s and parents’ leadership experiences. All participants advocated ECE programs in which quality early care and education are ensured through inclusive leadership. Both teachers’ and administrators’ willingness to invest in leadership training and practices indicated their commitment towards a shared and democratic leadership model which is a pathway toward social justice.

Keywords Early childhood education · Leadership · Teachers and administrators · Case study · Immigrant families

The recognition of the long-term impact of early education on a child’s life has fueled the improvements in early child- hood pedagogy. Solid early childhood pedagogy must be nurtured through leadership to create quality early education and care (Hujala 2019). Educational leadership is a sustaina- ble model that uses collaboration to generate positive effects on student achievement and ensures long-lasting outcomes (Burns 2016; Ferdig 2007; Fullan 2005). Emerging from business and management theories, leadership studies were progressively incorporated into educational studies (Hoy and Miskel 2008; Jacobson and Cypres 2012). Nonetheless,

due to significant differences, corporate leadership theories seem incompatible with early childhood education (ECE) practices (Kagan and Hallmark 2001; Mujis et al. 2004). Corporate leadership caters to large, hierarchical, formal, and often product-oriented organizations, typically led by men, whereas ECE leadership tends to be more collaborative and distributive in smaller and more people-oriented institu- tions often led by women (Schein 2004). Current studies of ECE leadership highlighted the critical attributes predomi- nantly valued in the field of early childhood: collaboration, interpersonal relationships, pedagogical practices, and mul- tidisciplinary services to families (Nicholson et al. 2020).

Interest and demand for conceptualizing ECE leader- ship, and the need to provide evidence for research-based ECE leadership training and implementation emerged in the 1990s. Researchers in different countries conceptualized ECE leadership within their cultural context. Heikka and Hujala (2013) emphasized distributed leadership, pedagogi- cal leadership, and teacher leadership as core concepts in ECE leadership in Finland. In the United States, ECE lead- ership was approached by pedagogical and administrative

* Clarisse Halpern [email protected]

1 Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Culture, College of Education, Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, USA

2 Department of Teacher Education, College of Education, Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, USA

3 Fort Myers, USA

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leadership (Abel et al. 2017). Numerous scholars called attention to the development of emancipatory leadership in early childhood centers, including a range of ECE profes- sionals without limiting leadership roles to administrators (Nicholson et al. 2020).

Other researchers described the impact of collaboration and team support at the organizational level (Muñoz et al. 2015) and described the need for developing a holistic model that describes the administration’s responsibilities for using leadership to foster organizational integration (Haslip and Gullo 2018; Myers and Palmer 2015). Although shared char- acteristics of ECE leadership seem to emerge across cul- tures, Hujala et al. (2016) emphasized that ECE’s unique cultural contexts, guiding principles, and core values deter- mine the content of leadership tasks and responsibilities, and might differ in ECE schools and centers. Leadership is required to respond to challenges brought about by the changing demographics of student populations and diverse family structures and cultures in the United States (Krieg et al. 2014). Thus, the micro and macro-environments in which the early childhood centers operate play an essential role in the leadership culture and discourse.

Although theories of ECE leadership have been preva- lent during the past three decades, research-based knowledge is still needed. Hujala (2019) emphasized that producing research-based evidence on leadership is the prerequisite for developing a sustainable ECE leadership model. The percep- tion that leadership affects the quality of ECE practices is becoming widespread, thus, there is a pressing need to study ECE professionals’ perspectives on leadership, exploring the extent to which they hold shared values, vision, and views on the key factors that affect the leadership structure (Fonsén and Soukainin 2020; Heikka and Hujala 2013). Therefore, this case study explores ECE leadership’s views among administrators and teachers in a center in Southwest Flor- ida that serves immigrant children and families from Latin America and Haiti. First, we provide an overview of the literature on the conceptualization of ECE leadership. Then, we describe the context of the case setting, data collection and analysis, and discuss the five major themes responding to the research question, followed by recommendations.

ECE Leadership Conceptualization and Practices

Early studies on ECE leadership focused on its multi-dimen- sional nature, roles, and responsibilities, thus, suggesting that ECE settings required a more situational, socially con- structed, and interpretive approach (Hujala 2002, 2004). ECE leadership, grounded on pedagogical, curricular, and instructional goals, focuses on educational purposes, rather than leadership applied to managerial and business settings.

Hence, ECE leadership places a heavier emphasis on learn- ing processes, not only those experienced by children, but also by the entire educational team (Robinson et al. 2009).

Previous research found that ECE leadership fosters a col- laborative, teamwork culture and learning community cre- ated through periodic training, discussions and professional development (Chan 2018; Ueda 2014, 2015). Nonetheless, despite the importance of gaining leadership competencies for their practice and career progression, ECE teachers often lack the experience and mentoring opportunities to do so (Ebbeck et al. 2014). Thus, the primary goal of an ECE leaders must be to offer professional development programs to instill leadership attitudes, skills, and knowledge for their daily practices (Henderson 2017; LaRocco et al. 2014), and to develop “their staff to enhance children’s learning” (Nut- tall et al. 2018, p. 80). Other studies have explored the devel- opment of ECE leadership through mentoring and coaching, emphasizing the benefits of combining both strategies for highly effective learning of leadership roles, responsibilities, skills, and the assimilation of knowledge created between coaches and leaders on shared tasks and objectives (Carroll- Lind et al. 2016; Robertson 2011; Rodd 2013; Waniganay- ake et al. 2012; Wong and Waniganayake 2013). Regardless of the hierarchical level, ECE leaders’ essential competen- cies are effective leadership, shared responsibility, and pro- fessional learning (Bruns et al. 2017).

ECE leadership is aligned with a holistic model that describes the responsibilities and actions of ECE cent- ers’ directors while promoting more integration, shared knowledge, and visibility of the organization (Myers and Palmer 2015). ECE leadership should be principle-centered, grounded in humanistic, transformational, and value-based attributes (Carr et al. 2009), and should not be restricted to the administrative/managerial level, but must also include the teachers. Despite limited opportunities, Armstrong et al. (2009) found that teachers want to expand their leadership potential. Leadership opportunities must emerge from the school’s organizational structure, mainly from the princi- pal–teacher relationship. Leadership must occur at different levels to promote a supportive environment for school staff and children’s families and to benefit the children’s develop- ment and success. In this regard, Cheung et al. (2018) found that effective teacher leadership was comprised of different dimensions, including the classroom, teachers, and school levels at the ECE organization.

The importance of developing leadership skills at different hierarchical levels is justified by the need to take it as a process that influences “change to improve early care and education, and not reserved just for those with a formal leadership posi- tion” (Douglass 2018, p. 387). When educators are developed as leaders, they become empowered to lead change, improv- ing themselves and their students’ development. Similarly, Cheung et al. (2018) highlighted that children’s whole-child

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development is directly benefitted by the development of teachers’ leadership. Consequently, leadership must not be associated with a formal job title or job description; instead, ECE leadership must be a relational process that aims to influ- ence and impact change (Douglass 2018).

Whole Leadership Framework

The Whole Leadership Framework (WLF) was developed in the United States to address the conceptualization of ECE leadership at the program level for formal and informal lead- ership roles and program structures (Abel 2019; Abel et al. 2017; Kagan and Bowman 1997). This framework offered essential insights into the conceptualizations of ECE leader- ship and guided our investigation of ECE leadership percep- tions among teachers and administrators, particularly in a case about an ECE center that offers programs to culturally and linguistically diverse children and families in Southwest Florida.

Considering the WLF and the multifaceted nature of ECE, ECE program leadership encompasses three funda- mental and interdependent domains: administrative lead- ership, pedagogical leadership, and leadership essentials (Abel et al. 2017). The administrative leadership addresses the need to qualify, empower, and coordinate a team that develops and sustains the organization, including its opera- tions and strategic goals, offering programs that advocate for the needs of the children, families, and communities served. Pedagogical leadership entails providing high-qual- ity education based on the curricular philosophy, learning environment, and developmentally appropriate assessments, promoting family leadership through family engagement programs. Finally, the leadership essentials include critical personal attributes, skills, styles, and dispositions, such as adaptability, creativity, authenticity, empathy, self-efficacy, humility, and transparency (Abel et al. 2017).

Based on the literature review and guided by the WLF, we identified a need for empirical research to investigate ECE teachers’ and administrators’ perceptions of ECE leadership in a center that offers programs to culturally and linguisti- cally diverse families in Southwest Florida. We aimed to answer the following research question: What are the per- ceptions of ECE leadership among the teachers and admin- istrators? The results may inform stakeholders about ECE leadership, resulting in better practices that benefit children’s education.

Methods

A case study (Stake 2005; Yin 2005) was applied to exam- ine a real-life, intrinsic system (Creswell and Poth 2018) of ECE leadership practices. The case described ECE

administrators’ and teachers’ views of ECE leadership prac- tices in the context of an ECE center located in Southwest Florida, offering in-depth and contextualized perspectives (Merriam 1998) of the phenomenon under investigation. The case was selected based on a partnership between the university of the authors’ affiliation and the ECE center that offers preservice teachers’ internships and opportunities to practice strategies for English for Speakers of Other Lan- guages (ESOL) before graduation. The ECE center’s mis- sion is to serve underprivileged Latino and Haitian families using leadership practices that attend to the needs of these immigrant families. The researchers took a social construc- tivist epistemological standpoint to capture the participants’ perceptions of ECE leadership, understanding that reality is constructed in a meaning-making process based on their social interactions and experiences (Berger and Luckman 1985) with leadership practices.

Case Setting

The setting was a community ECE center in Southwest Flor- ida serving immigrant children and their families. Accord- ing to the center’s website, 85% of the families served live at-or-below the Federal Poverty Threshold, with the lowest income and highest poverty and unemployment rates com- pared to other parts of Florida. The per capita income is $16.670, 50% of the elementary age children are English language learners, and 31% of the population over 25 years of age have less than a high school education, 60% of parents have not graduated from high school, of which 24% have achieved less than a ninth-grade education, and 97% speak a primary language other than English in the home (i.e., pre- dominantly Spanish and Haitian Creole). Therefore, the ECE center, established in 2004, serves the most disadvantaged families in this community.

The mission and vision of this community ECE center target specific educational, socio-emotional, and linguistic needs of the local population, providing pathways out of poverty through educating children and families. The core values that guide the day-to-day work and interaction in the center include: (1) education for transformation, (2) high expectations toward excellence, (3) integrity and account- ability, (4) value of diversity, morals, and faith, (5) power of community and volunteerism, and (6) innovative and sustainable practices. The center offers a wide range of pro- grams, including ECE programs, after school programs for middle and high school students, adult education, English language courses, financial literacy courses, and family literacy activities. Recently, the community center’s cam- pus has been significantly expanded with new buildings to offer modern, comfortable, and well-equipped classrooms, offices, and meeting rooms. The ECE center has eight class- rooms with modern child-sized furniture decorated in an

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age, culturally, and developmentally appropriate way. All classrooms have learning centers with a reading corner, a socio-dramatic play area, a building area, and a sand and water table. Besides, the classrooms reflect the cultural and linguistic diversity of children and families through bilingual books, multilingual signs, visuals and artifacts from the His- panic and Haitian cultures.

Last year, 223 children attended different types of ECE programs: (1) 71 children in a 5-days/week programs, (2) 42 children in 2-days/week programs, and (3) 110 children in 1-day/week programs. Through Creative Curriculum and assessment (Dodge et al. 2002), the teachers pursue a holis- tic approach to development to promote social-emotional skills, language and literacy development, cognition, general knowledge, physical well-being, and motor development. Through rich exposure to the English language, children are engaged in developmentally appropriate activities and interactions that encourage independence, critical thinking, and confidence. One of the unique components of the ECE programs is the Parent and Child Together (PACT) program, which promotes family literacy activities for parents and children. The goal is to empower parents to take on a proac- tive leadership role in their children’s lives and education and become their child’s teacher. Given the characteristics of the local community and their needs, the ECE center imple- mented leadership practices to infuse leadership attitudes and skills into its educational and family literacy programs and activities. These leadership practices are built upon the Leader in Me, part of the 7 Habits for Highly Effective Peo- ple (Covey 2013).

Participants

A purposive sample of seven volunteer participants was selected. Four participants were teachers, and three were administrators at the ECE center. The participants signed

an Informed Consent Form (Protocol ID #2018-04) before the interview, ensuring confidentiality of their names and information and the use of codes to protect their identities (Creswell 2014). Table 1 depicts the participants’ demo- graphic information.

Data Collection Process and Analysis

The data collection process consisted of semi-structured individual interviews and field notes taken during the inter- views and visits to the ECE center (Yin 2005). The inter- views explored the participants’ feelings, opinions, and atti- tudes towards ECE leadership at the ECE center (Creswell 2014). The field notes comprised information gathered about the ECE center’s leadership practices and the participants’ behaviors and reactions to the theme under investigation. The combination of data ensured a detailed description of the participants’ perceptions (Yin 2005) and increased the findings’ trustworthiness and credibility (Creswell and Poth 2018).

The interviews were conducted at the ECE center and lasted approximately 45 min each. First, the authors tran- scribed the audio-recorded interviews verbatim, then organ- ized and coded the data using iterative readings. Later, the authors aggregated the data into clusters (Stake 2005) that supported the five emerging themes that will be described at length next (Creswell 2014). The authors adopted additional measures to increase the study’s credibility and trustworthi- ness by analyzing the data separately and comparing it to identify any irregularities and reduce bias (Patton 2002). The authors used external audits to ensure the consistency and accuracy of the findings (Fraenkel et al. 2015). Finally, the authors sought to develop naturalistic generalizations that would allow people to learn from the case and, consequently, apply this knowledge to similar contexts, educational set- tings, or populations (Creswell and Poth 2018; Yin 2005).

Table 1 Demographic information of participants

F = Female, M = Male. AG = Administrator; TG = Teacher

Code Job title Degree Years of experience in education

Gender Ethnicity

AG-1 Chief Executive Officer Ph.D. in Educational Leadership 36 M Caucasian AG-2 ECE Program coordinator BA in Early Childhood Education 18 F Hispanic AG-3 ECE Program Director MA in Education 14 F Caucasian TG-1 Teacher BA in Early Childhood Education 5 F Caucasian TG-2 Teacher AA in Early Childhood Education 15 F Caucasian TG-3 Teacher AA in Early Childhood Education 12 F Caucasian TG-4 Teacher BA in Early Childhood Education 3 F Caucasian

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Findings

Five major themes emerged from the discourses of teach- ers’ and administrators’ about their perceptions of ECE leadership: (1) vision-driven leadership, (2) inclusive leadership, (3) practice-focused leadership, (4) freedom and ownership vs. close supervision, and (5) advocacy for ECE. The themes indicated that teachers and administra- tors perceived a collaborative, democratic, and practice- oriented ECE leadership practice in this center, which ultimately contributed to better quality education and life for culturally and linguistically diverse children and their families.

Vision‑Driven Leadership

Administrators believed that the vision-driven leader- ship, with a flat hierarchical structure in managerial and operational aspects, facilitates optimal early childhood programs. They (AG-1, AG-2 and AG-3) emphasized a vision and goal-driven leadership, which is interdependent and collaborative rather than a top-down approach. The Chief Executive Officer (AG-1) noted that leaders must have the ability to create a vision, determine clear goals, and ensure the execution of the action plan using their decision-making skills. At the same time, he emphasized that these skills must be put in practice in a collabora- tive environment in which professionals and parents work together. Therefore, he noted, leaders must have qualities that foster this collaboration, “We are very purposeful in our ECE program to make sure we are building those inter- actions in a systematic way” (AG-1). In this ECE center, new staff members become familiar with the organization’s mission, values, strategic plan, and performance evalua- tion system. AG-1 said, “every employee here know[s] what their role is within the organization, their goals from the performance standpoint, and how that supports leader- ship development in their capacities to cooperate.”

Several teachers echoed this vision-driven leadership and stated, “I believe that leaders must have a clear vision to guide others” (TG-1). However, other teachers expressed some distance in terms of shared goals, separating ‘they’ [administrators] and ‘we’ [teachers] saying, “They [admin- istrators] expect that we [teachers] be (sic) leaders in our classrooms. They have goals and objectives that we have to meet” (TG-1). She seemed to distinguish between admin- istrators’ role as goal setters, and the role of teachers as executers of goals. However, in general, both teachers and administrators agreed that this ECE center is driven by the vision of “everybody has capacity to be a leader” (AG-1) which implies an inclusive nature of leadership.

Inclusive Leadership

Both teachers and administrators described inclusive leader- ship as the ability to embrace teachers, parents, and children as leaders, with the notion that “everyone can be a leader.” The participants emphasized that when opportunities are provided, teachers, parents, and children can develop lead- ership skills to improve others’ lives. Within this inclusive leadership perspective, participants identified different roles for themselves. The Chief Executive Officer (AG-1) found his role as a provider, noting that, “As a leader of this organi- zation, I’m responsible for developing the capacity of the individuals within the organization to lead. My role is to provide the operational systems needed to accomplish those leadership characteristics within the programs” (AG-1).

Conversely, the director for early childhood programs (AG-3) identified her role as someone who provides oppor- tunities for teachers to become leaders. Specifically, she described the professional development program Leader in Me: Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, which was implemented at this school. She said,

We encourage the teachers to be leaders. They take on different roles in our bi-weekly meetings. They can lead the meetings, give ideas for curriculums or lesson plans, or extracurricular activities. For me, leadership is helping the leader that everybody has inside. So, leadership means helping everybody to be the leader (AG-3).

Other teachers echoed the notion of inclusive leadership in which teachers are part of the team rather than the ones “being managed.” A recent graduate teacher with an ECE degree said,

I’d like to think that everyone is a leader. Here, you are made to feel like everybody is a team, and we are working together. We are all leaders. In other places, that might be more for the upper-level people to see themselves as leaders, not so much the teachers (TG- 4).

To help young children become leaders, AG-2, the ECE center program coordinator, who works directly with the classroom teachers, described the specific strategies used in everyday activities. She noted,

[Two-year-olds] are going to be the leaders in differ- ent ways: they can hold the doors, be the line leaders, be the ones who are helping the teacher, and be the pointers when the teacher is singing. So, everybody has jobs, of course, but at different levels. So, every- body can be a leader (AG-2).

She added that children could learn leadership skills when teachers give up some control in the classroom, allowing

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them to have a voice, be in charge, and be responsible for different tasks. The holistic nature of inclusive leadership further unfolded as one of the teachers described the par- ents’ role as leaders. In this ECE center, which mainly serves Haitian Creole and Spanish-speaking, recently immigrated families, parents are required to participate in class activi- ties and school events. Parents regularly take part in various literacy activities with children in the classroom; therefore, parents become more equipped to engage with their children at home in age and developmentally appropriate ways (Halp- ern et al. 2019). Teachers recognized how this involvement of parents is transforming them to become leaders as well. TG-4 elaborated on this involvement,

Because the parents in our program have their own projects and presentations, they are leaders in their classrooms. They help each other with homework, and you know that’s being a leader. Myself as a teacher, my co-teachers, the volunteers when they come here, they are all leaders in our classes as well (TG-4).

This notion of shared and inclusive leadership results in additional positive outcomes. TG-2 said, “I’m not the one controlling all the answers or the situation, but allow- ing other people to help me learn, too, about the different perspectives that we may have” (TG-2). The inclusive lead- ership, comprising administrators, teachers, parents, and children as leaders, seems to be a shared and appreciated perception of ECE leadership in this center.

Practice‑Focused Leadership

Mainly teachers, but also administrators, expressed that early childhood leaders must have interpersonal and prac- tice-focused leadership skills to support others in a learning environment. All teachers expected their administrators to empower them, communicate well, give clear directions, follow up, provide resources, assistance, and demonstrate passion and empathy. Most often, teachers seemed to expect their administrators to provide optimal conditions for teach- ing and the appropriate tools for learning in the classroom. In this case, teachers perceived administrators/leaders as the providers of an optimal work environment. For instance, one teacher expected the availability of resources and profes- sional development to be provided by their administrators, “A leader is the person goes beyond expectations of what they want you to do, but gives you the tools, the strategies, and techniques to do so” (TG-1). Another teacher further clarified that guided assistance in practical pedagogical issues was appreciated, “[A leader] gives you the manual, gives you a chance to read through it, explains everything to you” (TG-3). She expected guidance in pedagogy to become a more effective teacher.

Good communication skills, including clarity and straightforward organization for collaboration and teaching were identified as parts of effective ECE leadership. For example, AG-3, the director of the ECE program, high- lighted that, as a leader, she must be a good listener to understand what the teachers, parents, and children need. She emphasized that her listening must be focused and objective, adding that, “I have to stop and focus…to be able to listen to what a teacher or student or families [say], and what their needs are” (AG-3). Besides, several teach- ers noted that administrators’ regular, clear, and straight- forward communication helped them become effective leaders in their classrooms. Aligned with teachers, AG-2, who worked directly with teachers, emphasized practice- focused leadership, describing her job as “to help every teacher, just to do their best in the classroom” (AG-2). She further explained her role saying, “I don’t teach the teachers. The majority of the time, leadership is to be in the classroom, giving the support they need and modeling what they need to change, without saying “this is not right” (AG-2). The director of the ECE program supported this idea of modeling skills to others as leadership. She elabo- rated on modeling leadership qualities for the students:

If you want to have independent students who love learning, you have to help them get to that place. If the teacher is constantly leading all activities, the students will never learn to be leaders. So, the lead- ers need to foster those skills in their students (AG- 3).

Social-emotional characteristics such as being passionate, enthusiastic, and empathetic were also perceived as crucial skills for ECE leaders. Due to the notion of inclusive, col- laborative leadership in this ECE center, all administrators and teachers noted empathy as an important prerequisite. Administrators expected teachers to be passionate about edu- cation to foster students’ appreciation for learning. Similarly, teachers recognized that their passion was essential for their job. As AG-2 highlighted, “You can do your job well if you feel passion for the people and tasks.” Overall, both teach- ers and administrators emphasized that ECE leaders need to focus on interpersonal relations and support student devel- opment and learning through a practice-focused approach.

Freedom and Ownership vs. Close Supervision

The opportunities for freedom and ownership in teaching and educational activities were the common expectations for ECE leaders in providing for others. According to the participants, freedom and ownership fostered positive trans- formation for all. The director of the ECE program described one incident:

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We let the kids pick which center they want to go to, and [having] that control is beneficial to their learn- ing… [and] when 3-year-olds put on that little apron which says ‘leader of the day,’ you’ll see a normally quiet child, who won’t participate, come out of their shell, greet people, give their opinion, and help out (AG-3).

She also commented that parents recognized the impor- tance of giving children freedom and opportunity for leader- ship and reinforced the activities at home, which resulted in improved behavior:

Parents have shared that they bought a medal in the dollar store and told their kids that “at home, you are the leader of the day.” So, a child who was not picking up his toys and not helping clearing the table, all of a sudden, he starts doing all these things that he would do here. We want them to realize they are the leader of their own lives; they control their destiny (AG-3).

The acknowledgment of professional freedom in instruc- tional design and the appreciation for curriculum owner- ship and lessons surfaced in the teachers’ answers. One teacher perceived herself as a creative and trusted leader in the classroom and appreciated this teaching and learning environment.

My bosses support us by giving us freedom, making us feel like we are a leader in the class, and we’re in charge. They are flexible; they let us figure things out. They want us to be leaders. So, they give us the theme [for the week], and then it’s up to us what we want to do with that theme. I write my own lesson plans. We have our boundaries, but then we have our freedom to decide what to do. So, I think that definitely supports us a lot and helps us feel more like we are in charge and are leaders (TG-4).

This freedom was provided to the parents, who are expected to participate in the classroom (e.g., with actively planning activities). TG-1 described her role as a leader who encourages parents to become leaders in the classroom: “Every time that we have a new theme, I ask the parents to do a mini-project; then, the mother becomes the leader of that activity” (TG-1). Overall, autonomy and own- ership seemed to be embedded in a collaborative environ- ment, as all stakeholders felt responsible for optimal learning in the classroom.

However, one teacher (TG-3), who had 15  years of teaching experience, seemed to have divergent views about leadership with freedom and described ECE leadership as close supervision of teachers. She equated leadership and management and expected the administrators to tell her exactly what to do in the classroom. She stated, “[a] good

leader tells people what they should do” (TG-3). Although she shared other participants’ perceptions of the character- istics of a good leader (e.g., good communication skills, knowledgeable about laws, being assertive to meet goals), she felt frustrated and abandoned in the implementation of the Leader in Me program (Covey 2013) in her preschool classroom. Overall, she expressed that the administrators should provide detailed guidance and supervision on les- sons and instruction. With the exception of this teacher, all participants acknowledged that freedom and ownership were essential conditions for effective ECE leadership.

Advocacy for ECE

All participants identified themselves as ECE leaders and expressed a strong voice of advocacy for quality ECE. When exploring future goals and actions, administrators acknowl- edged the challenge of hiring and retaining quality ECE teachers. Teacher retention was a particularly puzzling task at this center because of the limited number of full-time positions. Both the CEO and the director noted that lower turnover would create more stability and stronger programs. The program coordinator (AG-2) pinpointed that early child- hood teachers’ positions are not attractive because of the low pay, demand for hard work, and limited prestige of the profession in society. She advocated for making changes at the state level through leadership, securing support, and edu- cating the public about the importance of early childhood.

The teachers also felt that in this program they were part of the creation and maintenance of quality ECE programs through the involvement of parents and children as leaders. They advocated for more collaboration among all stakehold- ers with the primary goal of serving young children. One teacher noted, “Early childhood is the foundation, the base of a big building. So, if we start to trust them [children] from the very beginning, we will have more leaders in the world” (TG-1). All participants agreed that with the system- atic implementation of the Leader in Me program (Covey 2013), all stakeholders could develop a voice advocating best practices in early childhood.

Discussion

The participants appreciated and practiced inclusive leader- ship, including administrators, teachers, parents, and chil- dren, which opposed traditional leadership notions that focus heavily on assertive and decisive individual power over fol- lowers (Douglass 2018). Inclusive leadership is associated with collaborative and relational leadership built on the foundation of each person’s knowledge and skills to achieve a common goal (Douglass 2017). In this study, we found that a shared or distributed leadership was expanded beyond

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administrators and teachers to include parents and children; thus, enhancing children’s school success aligned with the ECE center’s mission and vision. Similarly, an inclusive leadership model was identified by Jacobson and Notman (2018) in a study of administrators in New Zealand who ini- tiated increased parental involvement in an ECE program to support economically disadvantaged families, thereby pro- viding effective assistance in children’s school performance.

Notably, the unique cultural context of the ECE center was central in the conceptualization of inclusive leadership. Most families in this community experience poverty, lack resources and familiarity with the English language, culture, education, and life in the United States, resulting in a lack of social support systems and integration (Halpern et al. 2019). By inviting and including parents in the ECE daily activities, and treating them as leaders in these activities, teachers cre- ated communities of families who support each other in their new country, including adult education classes to improve parents’ English proficiency. Through the well-coordinated support system, including the early childhood classes, adult education, and food pantry, this community center targets numerous needs of the families that contribute significantly to children’s optimal care and education. Besides, the inclu- sion of children in leadership roles and activities further expanded the idea of entrusting people regardless of age, and reinforced a high level of mutual trust as a driving force in inclusive leadership. The participants’ discourses indicated a culture of reciprocal trust, benevolence, honesty, openness, reliability, and competence (Avolio 2011).

In this study, teachers focused on leadership attributes closely related to their pedagogy and complemented their daily work and responsibilities. The administrators, who worked directly with teachers, also emphasized teacher lead- ership in the classroom, providing autonomy for teachers and coaching them in pedagogical tasks. In a study about Finn- ish ECE centers, Heikka et al. (2018) found that teachers felt more comfortable exercising leadership roles in teams, mainly in short-term planning and daily tasks. Though simi- lar to our study, Heikka et al. (2018) also pointed out teach- ers’ hesitance about taking teacher leadership roles and the lack of preparation for this role.

Furthermore, ECE leadership literature has called atten- tion to the leadership development gap (Goffin 2013) due to the lack of ECE leadership preparation programs in higher education, and lack of opportunities for experienced educa- tors to develop these skills (Douglass 2018). Although only AG-1, the Chief Executive Officer, had a degree in leader- ship, all teachers and administrators were in professional development that helped them systematically implement the leadership program, Leader in Me (Covey 2013). The combination of training based on well-established guidelines for educational leaders and empirical research (Braybrook 2019; Fonsén and Ukkonen-Mikkola 2019), ensured the

development of well-orchestrated actions that aim for chil- dren’s academic success and cultural integration. Hender- son (2017) conducted action research to develop educational leadership capabilities among in-service ECE teachers and, similar to our study, found that teachers began to see them- selves as leaders. These initiatives for enhancing leadership competencies contribute to close the leadership gap through appropriate pre-service and in-service professional develop- ment (Abel 2019; Ebbeck et al. 2014; Henderson 2017).

The ECE center implemented vision-driven leadership that mentored and transferred leadership skills to families and children, thus, becoming a comprehensive leadership model with impacts that affect the population they serve. Ultimately, the investments made in leadership practices to help the lives of the families and children in this Southwest Florida community have benefitted the children’s kindergar- ten readiness and may significantly impact their lives and future academic success (Halpern et al. 2019). Similarly, Heikka and Hujala (2013) called attention to the positive impact of leadership built on interdependence and inter- action between stakeholders by sharing and extending the boundaries of ECE leadership; they noted, “we must stop thinking about leadership as one person’s work” (Heikka and Hujala 2013, p. 578).

The participants expressed a passion for ECE and advo- cated for high-quality experiences for young children. This finding is aligned with the Whole Leadership Framework, which describes leaders as ambassadors for young children, families, and programs, and an emphasis on pedagogical leadership and essential leadership skills required of ECE leaders (Abel et al. 2017). The ECE center’s professionals’ commitment to serving vulnerable populations of immigrant Hispanic and Haitian children in poverty makes them role models using leadership to advocate for quality education and life experiences for culturally and linguistically diverse populations.

Conclusions and Implications

This study contributes to understanding ECE leadership practices in a center serving at-risk, culturally and linguisti- cally diverse families by exploring the perception of ECE administrators and teachers about leadership. All partici- pants supported the notion of inclusive leadership, which created collaborative and distributive leadership among teachers and administrators and offered opportunities for culturally and linguistically diverse parents and children to practice leadership skills in the classroom and beyond. Implementing this inclusive leadership is found to be needed and appropriate, especially with this population of students and families who otherwise might be perceived as outsiders (Elias and Scotson 1994). Through this inclusive leadership,

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the ECE program embraced immigrant families in their new homeland and ensured quality education for young children. It is instrumental for families to experience trust, shared responsibilities, and respect from the professionals. This study indicates that not only early childhood centers and pro- fessionals are providers of services, but they also embrace immigrant families as equal and active partners, which is the right path toward social justice (Nicholson 2017).

Implications

Based on this study’s findings, the following implications for policymakers, teacher educators, early childhood administra- tors and teachers, and families are proposed:

1. Early childhood policymakers should develop and promote policies that support the implementation of inclusive leadership practices, focusing on the needs of families at risk. These policies should require leadership training, allowing ECE professionals to improve their qualifications and competencies for leading early child- hood programs.

2. Teacher educators should create learning opportunities for ECE students to explore context-specific leadership practices in the ECE teacher education curriculum. Besides, higher education institutions should ensure the availability of programs that prepare ECE admin- istrators. Considering the social, cultural, and linguistic needs of the population that future teachers and admin- istrators will serve, they should develop collaboration skills for leadership experiences shared with families and children.

3. Considering the growing diversity in ECE classrooms, early childhood administrators and teachers should gain an in-depth understanding of the needs of the commu- nity in which they work, be cognizant of the experiences and specific needs of recently immigrated families, and create mutually trustful professional relationships with families and children as equal leaders in the programs. Thus, early childhood administrators should provide ongoing professional development on topics, such as inclusive leadership with culturally and linguistically diverse families and children.

4. Families should be invited and encouraged to become engaged in their children’s classrooms with activities in which they can take leadership roles. Though differ- ent from people in other cultures, their culture-specific knowledge and experiences are valuable and enriching to all children and teachers in the classroom. Parents should also be encouraged to offer their children lead- ership experiences at home, in which children can take responsibility in age, developmentally, and culturally appropriate activities.

The limitations of the study are related to the study design and the context. This case study examined the administra- tors’ and teachers’ views on ECE leadership implemented in a center that serves immigrant children and families from Latin America and Haiti. Therefore, the findings of the study are not generalizable, though centers that serve similar populations might find the results relevant to their context. Another limitation comes from the scope of the study. The findings indicated that teachers and administra- tors acknowledged the importance and appropriateness of inclusive leadership, including parents and children. To validate this inclusiveness of leadership experiences, parents and children should have been interviewed as well. There- fore, future studies on leadership practices should include participants representing all stakeholders, including parents and children, to create a more holistic picture of leadership practices. Also, systematic, participatory observations in the classrooms and day-to-day practices could deepen or modify the participants’ self-reflection and perception of leadership practices in the given center.

Funding Not applicable.

Data Availability IRB Protocol ID #2018-04.

Compliance with Ethical Standards

Conflict of interest We have no known conflict of interest to disclose.

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